The yacht Copernicus was built especially for the Whitbread Round The World Race 1973.

She was slightly bigger than standard Opal II class - to get the 33 feet rating by IOR.

The wooden hull was built in Gdańsk Boatyard Stogi, with help from the members of Yacht Club Stal Gdynia.

The skipper was Zygfryd Perlicki, and the crew was Zbigniew Puchalski, Bogdan Bogdzinski, Ryszard Mackiewicz and Bronislaw Tarnacki.

The yacht was used for youth training, cruising, partly chartering after the race.